Unions at the BBC have accepted revised guarantees from corporation management on plans to cut 4,000 jobs.
More than nine in 10 (92%) of members of the Bectu union voted to accept a one-year guarantee of no compulsory redundancies while talks move forward on how to reduce staff by 20%.
About 41% of Bectu members voted on the proposal. The other two unions with members at the BBC – the National Union of Journalists and Amicus – had previously agreed to the offer.
Talks are now set to begin at a divisional level to seek redundancy volunteers, said Luke Crawley, BBC official at Bectu. But the union said it reserved the right to repeat the strikes of late May if too many people were offered such packages.
In addition to delaying any compulsory redundancies for one year, the BBC agreed to put off the sale of its BBC Resources unit for at least two years.
Staff at BBC Broadcast also were promised access to a final salary pension scheme comparable to the BBC’s and other assurances that terms would remain unchanged for at least three years.
The unit is being sold to Australia’s largest investment bank, Macquarie Bank, and investment fund Macquarie Capital Alliance Group, which agreed to a one-year moratorium on compulsory job cuts.
